Mike Huff

Mike Huff (19**-) is an architect, cabaret artist, session singer and actor.

Though best known in theatre, film and TV by his stage name, Mike Huff, he is also referred to/billed as Michael Huff, Michael Hough or Mike Hough, while he appears to have signed contracts as Michael Hough.

Not to be confused with well known the Canadian architect Michael Hough (1929-2013)[1]

Biography

Born , he attended in Churchill High School in Harare and Homestead High - Mequon, Milwaukee, USA. Then completed a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) degree at the University of Cape Town.

Career as architect

He worked as a self-employed architect, while gradually building up a career in theatre and media alongside his growing theatrical career. He worked for various firms, including those of Colyn & Meiring, Britz & Scholes, and others.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Stage

In his early days as a student (apparently performing as Michael Hough or Mike Hough), he was a cast member of a production of Hamlet by the University of Cape Town Drama Department in the Little Theatre (1969), and had a role in The Sport of My Mad Mother at the The Space (1972).

Taking on the stage name of Mike Huff, he went on to become a well known and widely appreciated performer. Among his many stage appearances have been:

Musicals

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, The Rocky Horror Show and in Edith Piaf – No Regrets. He starred in Brickhill-Burke’s production of Neil Simon’s They're Playing Our Song together with Marloe Scott-Wilson at His Majesty’s in 1980. He starred in the Brickhill-Burke production of Jerry Herman’s musical Hello Dolly! together with Joan Brickhill, Victor Melleney, Iain Henderson, Andrea Catzel, June Hern and Charles Stodel. It was directed by Louis Burke and staged at His Majesty’s in 1980, Jimmy Righteous (1981). He starred in Janice Honeyman’s production, Forbidden Fruits, together with Jeremy Crutchley, Vanessa Cooke, Danny Keogh, Amanda Strydom and Annelisa Weiland at Upstairs at the Market in 1983/84. Little Shop of Horrors, Pieter Toerien, Richard Loring, (ass. Prod) Cameron Mackintosh, produced by Constance Grappo, set by Edward T. Gianfrancesco, Jannie Swanepoel’s lighting, André Huguenet Theatre, Jhb & Baxter Theatre 1985. He appeared as Colonel Goosen in The Biko Inquest (1985) as well as in Steve Biko: The Inquest. He starred in Grin and Bare It at the Victory Theatre in 1990. Played "Gaston" for PACT in Gigi (1992). He starred in Don't Dress for Dinner in 1993, The Sound of Music at the Staatstater, Pretoria in 1995,the musical Milestones (1999).

Other appearances on stage were in Antjie Somers, The Odd Couple, The Wizard of Oz, Milestones, Doubles, Hello, Dolly!, A Tale of Two Cities, Kafka Dances, Please tell us what's going on, please!, Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, Sunset Boulevard, Cabaret (2015).

Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer for NAPAC, the Messenger in Barney Simon's The Dybbuk (1986), the jogger in I'm not Rappaport for CAPAB, David in We and Them.

Film and TV work

He has appeared in many international and South African films and TV dramas and series. among them[2]:

My Liedjie van Verlange (1975), Westgate (1981), Thicker Than Water (1986), Grader Murphy (1989), American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt (1989), Vleuels (1989), Final Cut (1989), Crazy Camera (1989), Let the Music Be (1990), The Final Alliance (1990), Schweitzer (1990), River of Diamonds (1990), American Kickboxer (1991), African Skies (1992), Glaskasteel (1993), Die Sonkring II (1993), Project Shadowchaser II (1994), Dark Desires: Thelma (1994), The Adventures of Sinbad (1998), 37 Honey St (1998), Behind the Badge (2002), A Drink in the Passage (2002), Whiskey Echo (2005), The Trail (2006), Wild at Heart (2006), Cryptid (2006), Endgame (2009), District 9 (2009), Leonardo (2011), 7de Laan (one episode, 2016), Blood and Glory (2016), Rakka (2017), Oats Studios (2017), Reed's Point (2022)

Awards, etc

Nominated for Vita Award (Gauteng) 1996 for his role in Kafka Dances (best supporting actor).

Sources

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-huff-hough-b302619/?originalSubdomain=za

Brian Astbury 1979. The Space/Die Ruimte/Indawo. Cape Town: Moira and Azriel Fine.

Various entries in the NELM catalogue, including the Mannie Manim collection (MANIM, Mannie]_ 2010. 38. 2. 34. 12)

Hamlet programme, University of Cape Town Drama Department (1969).

SACD 1977/78; 1978/79.

Beeld, 12 August 1995.

Tucker, 1997.

We and Them programme notes, 1989.

http://www.artlink.co.za/news_article.htm?contentID=37197

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0400220/

www.imdb.com/name/nm0400220/

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